


Badge of Honor

by demishock



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, IgNoct, Ignis is very protective of Noctis, Ignoct Week, M/M, flagrant disregard for one's own health and well-being, ignoctweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 14:24:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11716209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demishock/pseuds/demishock
Summary: There were times when Ignis wished he'd been born an Amicitia.





	Badge of Honor

**Author's Note:**

> Written for ignoctweek on tumblr. Day 7 prompt: "Scars."
> 
> I don't have any excuses for this. The idea hit me in the shower this afternoon and I wrote it almost all in one go.

There were times when Ignis wished he'd been born an Amicitia.

No one ever questioned the bond between Amicitia and Lucis Caelum. The two bloodlines stretched back to antiquity together. It was considered a given, generation after generation, that the eldest child of one would remain forever by the side of the eldest child of the other. When he was younger, Ignis had likened it to the red string of fate that he read about over and over in the old tales, and he'd wished that he and Noctis could share such a deep and unwavering connection.

As he'd grown older, he'd simply decided to make it happen, his blood be damned.

Yet such things were not always his to control. No matter how meticulously he followed Noctis's schedule, and no matter whose permission he sought, there were some things that Ignis was simply excluded from.

Every time Ignis was made to leave Noctis's side, it seemed that something terrible would happen. Ignis knew that he should have been there - should have fought harder to be there.

Each instance struck him like a physical blow.

Marilith.

Tenebrae.

Noctis's first magic lesson.

That damned drunkard's attack.

Noctis and Prompto had just turned 18 that year, and both were convinced that they wanted to go to a nightclub. Ignis found out later that they'd kept it from him because they'd thought he would try to stop them, something that hurt him deeply to this day. Instead, they'd turned to Gladio to play both chaperone and wingman, and by night's end, Gladio had a permanent scar down the left side of his face.

The way Gladio told it, they'd been walking back to the car when a fight had broken out in front of a bar nearby. One of the aggressors had caught Noctis staring as the trio tried to pass, and had gotten in his face, shouting and cursing.

Gladio had noticed the knife just in time.

He'd been incredibly lucky that the blade didn't damage his eye.

When Ignis questioned why he had taken the hit rather than neutralizing the attacker, Gladio had shrugged and said that he hadn't wanted to hurt a Crown Citizen.

Ignis wanted to hurt everything that had ever caused Noctis fear or pain.

He tried very hard after that to be the sort of friend that the others would come to for help. He never wanted Noctis to get hurt because he'd thought that Ignis wouldn't support him in everything, always.

After they left Insomnia, Ignis had more opportunities to defend Noctis than he'd ever had before, and he took each one as seriously as the last. He took pride in every block and parry, and relished every opportunity to rid the world of another threat to his friend - his prince - his king. He ended each battle covered in cuts and abrasions, but they were no match for Lucian magic, and so he had nothing to show for his many acts of devotion.

Until Altissia.

When the Accordan doctors approached him with his prognosis, he barely heard them. Whether or not his vision would recover was of little consequence, as long as Noctis would be all right. Even so, a single statement pierced his ears through the fog.

"Regardless of the other outcomes, I'm afraid you'll be left with quite a bit of scarring."

Ignis's lips pressed into a thin, grim smile.

"Good."


End file.
